Carl Fink via Dng said on Sun, 10 Aug 2025 11:53:49 -0400

>Hi,
>
>I've just installed Devuan on this tiny laptop from Topton:
>https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807812061361.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.21b41802rBU7Ro&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
>
>I got the version with 32GB of RAM. It's surprisingly peppy.
>
>There are a few problems with it in Devuan. I'm hoping for ideas on
>getting it fully operational:
>
>1)The thing has an old-school pointer, like the IBM Trackpoint, with
>two buttons on the keyboard. (No trackpad--it's too small.) In KDE,
>the right button works but the left doesn't. Any ideas on configuring
>it so the right button works?
>
>2)In Linux, the console and X screen come up rotated 90 degrees left.
>If I use 'xrandr -o right' it scrambles the display and makes it
>unusable. If I put
>
>Option "Rotate "right"
>
>in the xorg.conf file (created using Xorg -configure) the X screen is
>rotated to the correct position ... but the touchscreen isn't rotated,
>so tapping on the screen moves the mouse to the wrong location.
>
>The result is that it works great with an external mouse, but neither
>of the built-in pointing devices work.
>
>Any insights greatly appreciated.
>
>Note that I tested in a couple of other "live" Linux distros, and the
>same problems (rotated display, buttons on keyboard don't work)
>existed there, too. The touchscreen in all cases works fine if I leave
>the screen rotated, but that's not terribly useful.

Hi Carl,

Depending on your situation, this could be very frustrating.

I think you need to curate more information...

I assume everything works just right if you don't start X at all. If my
assumption is correct, then the root cause is in the GUI world.

Try using LXDE instead of KDE on your computer and live distros, and
see if the symptom chance. While you're using LXDE, use lxrandr to see
if there's a way to fix this with lxrandr.

I'm no fan of Wayland, but just for fun try Wayland and see if the
symptom changes. If it does, it might give you insight into how to
tweak X, or perhaps Wayland might be good enough for your purposes.

Ask yourself if using an external USB mouse would be a significant
problem for you.

HTH,


SteveT

Steve Litt

http://444domains.com